Alberta Alliance Watch and Wildrose Report announce merger ...

... and will henceforth be known as Wildrose Alliance Watch:



This blog will remain up, and the odd post will still be made here, but when that happens, I'll link to it over at WRAW.

See you on the other side.

My number one reader

Just wanted to thank the reader with the Calgary IP who seems completely enthralled with this site. Obsessed, even.

This person has been known to initiate up to 42 page views here in a 24 hour period. Today, they were even rooting around in the Wayback Machine for archived versions of these pages.

Blogs are meant to be read, and good blogs do develop a following. I must say I never thought these posts were sooooo good that someone would be driven to read them over and over again, but, to each, their own.

So thank you, whoever you are.

Update: Hmmm. It would appear my number one reader is "Knave" from Project Alberta. I thought it was one of my anonymous "fans". I have a couple of people who send me little love letters from time to time, and I got my wires crossed in terms of figuring out the IP for one of them.

A mistake on my part.

Knave is very open about his real identity, so I don't think he would mind me mentioning it here. He is Rhys Courtman. I don't know Rhys, but from what I can see, he is a real pro. I'm glad he stops by here.

Paul Jackson says "feckless" Hinman to blame for by-election shellacking

Well faithful readers, much has happened in Alberta Alliance Land since my last post. I've got a lot of catching up to do. The following is on my list of things to do and cover:

• Craig Chandler's defection to the Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Chandler has recently announced that he will be seeking the nomination for the Tories in Calgary Egmont.
• Further discussion of the false statements being made by the Alberta Alliance regarding the size of Alberta's bureaucracy.
• The 2007 Alberta Alliance AGM, and what it means to the AAP.
• Summarize and comment on the disastrous results obtained by the Alberta Alliance during the June 12 Alberta by-elections.
• The 2006 finances of the AAP have now been made public. The river of red ink continues.
• A new right wing provincal party has been created to challenge the Alberta Alliance. The "Wildrose Party of Alberta" includes a number of former highly placed Alberta Alliance operatives and candidates.
• Some new polling numbers. Could the Alliance be on the rebound?
• Media coverage of the Alberta Alliance.

On this last point, I thought I'd start with Paul Jackson's June 19 Edmonton Sun column entitled "Tories lack vision". In the column, Jackson covers the by-election results from the perspective of the Alberta Liberals, and then says the following:

... the most telling point from the protest vote in Calgary Elbow - and to an extent in Drumheller-Stettler - is the once alternative right-wing vote is now dead.

In Calgary Elbow, even Green Party candidate George Read beat Alberta Alliance candidate Jane Greydanus. In Drumheller-Stettler, Alberta Alliance candidate Dave France came in fifth place. Astonishing. ...

... The Alliance, which in 2004 polled 9% of the vote across the province and seemed to be soaring, is now not even on life support.

For this I blame its leader, Paul Hinman, who is a decent, but feckless fellow, and who couldn't organize a trip to a cat house for a bunch of horny football players.

Instead, after a winning game, Paul would likely invite them to a church basement for soft drinks and cookies.

Personally, I'd choose the cat house, and, in my younger days, I actually visited a couple of these fine emporiums.

Bizarre.

I have never considered a politician's propensity to head for a whorehouse rather than a church to be an endearing factor in the minds of most voters. While I agree with most of Jackson's comments and criticisms of the AAP and Hinman to date, this column is over the top.

And if I consider it over the top, the Alberta Alliance communications staff must have been beside themselves, and must have quickly issued a strong public condemnation of this hit piece.

Right?

Well, there's nothing on the Alberta Alliance website about it. In fact, the website hasn't been updated in over a month. The results from the by-elections haven't even been posted.

I'm beginning to feel a bit sorry for Paul Hinman. It must be a real grind to continually be under attack when nobody in the party ever comes to your defense.

It creates the impression that the members, staff, and executive, have all but given up.

Source (click for screencap):

Migration completed

The migration to the new version of blogger has been completed. It should be noted that:

• the permalinks for all posts are now different;
• the comments feature, which was not heavily used, has been turned off by default. There were some anonymous personal attacks against Craig Chandler on one post, that I could not delete. It is my intention in future to allow moderated comments on a post by post basis;
• a new "Labels" feature has been added so that you can search by name or by topic.

I will be putting up a couple of new posts on the Alberta Alliance in the next day or so.

Confidential tips by email

If you look at the sidebar on the right-hand side of this page, you'll notice that I have added an email link. This feature is provided as a service to you, the readers of Alberta Alliance Watch.

Information is the lifeblood of any media, and I hope some of you will provide me with information that you think is important for the public to know about. The following represents the policies I will administer with respect to any information you provide to me:

• The information will only be published if it pertains to the Alberta Alliance Party.
• Your complete confidentiality will be respected. No information that may serve to identify you will be published by me.
• Your email address will be kept completely confidential. It will not be shared with anybody.
• I will not publish anything that is defamatory.

I think that covers it, but if you have any recommendations on how this feature can be improved, I would be glad to hear from you.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil ...

... is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

This blog is dedicated to recording and exposing the foibles, falsehoods, and fascism of the Alberta Alliance Party.

I hope you find it informative.